July 17, 2008
Be flexible - what you expected will change
Startups need people who work beyond 9 to 5, and who can change their expectations on a dime
Visible Technologies CEO Adam Selig grew his online reputation monitoring company from a 7-person team to one that is over 50-people strong. To this end, it's good to hear his thoughts on how to manage and build a team. The first piece of advice he had to entrepreneurs is to be "flexible" because the expectations of what they're in for will most likely change in three months.
The other advice he shared was something many entrepreneurs say all to often: Don't expect to work half day or a full work day. It's an entire day. A startup requires "personal investment," he said.
"You can't really walk into a situation like that and think that working 9 to 5, you've come in to act like a more traditional organization," he said."You have to get your hands dirty."
Finally, to founders - have energy and inspiration to carry the team and keep them motivated. Indeed, corporate culture is top down.
Bambi Francisco Roizen
Founder and CEO of Vator, a media and research firm for entrepreneurs and investors; Managing Director of Vator Health Fund; Co-Founder of Invent Health; Author and award-winning journalist.
All author postsRelated Companies, Investors, and Entrepreneurs
Visible Technologies
Startup/Business
Joined Vator on
Visible is the leader in social media monitoring and analytics solutions, providing the perfect combination of software and services to harness business value from social communities. Visible Intelligence™ is our next generation social media platform, designed to deliver big improvements in competitive and brand intelligence, marketing ROI and smarter customer insights through an agile platform that activates brand communities at Internet speed and enterprise scale.
With offices in Seattle, London and New York, Visible ranks as one of the Inc. 500 fastest-growing private companies. Visible has successful customer and partner relationships with Office Depot, DIRECTV, Microsoft, Xerox, Dr Pepper Snapple Group, Boost Mobile, Autodesk, Vail Resorts, Burson-Marsteller, Razorfish, Group M, Wunderman Network, Tribal DDB Worldwide, WPP, John Lewis, Spring Creek Group, Blanc and Otus, AMEX and FedEx.
Visible is privately-held with investment funding from Joe Grano, Ignition Partners, In-Q-Tel, Investor Growth Capital and WPP Group, plc. The company has a dedicated and talented leadership team with decades of analytics, digital marketing and technology expertise.
Related News